Hold Me
by A. Windsor
Summary: Callie comes home after her stressful day. Post-ep to 8x10.


Title: _Hold Me_

Author: A. Windsor

Pairing/Characters: Callie/Arizona

Rating: PG-13 (a bit of cursing)

Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. My one year and a half years of law school could allow me to legalese this a little more, but it also tells me it's pretty useless. So please don't sue; it's not me, I'm just playing!

Series: Standalone, post ep.

Summary: Callie comes home after her stressful day. Post-ep to 8x10.

Author's Note: I'm working on really long Thing!verse, but my muse needed a little break. Hope you enjoy! Oh! And now I have a tumblr. So come check me out:a-windsor . tumblr . com. Y'know, if fic and reblogging adorable gifs is your thing.

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><p>Callie comes home much later than she should. Guilt kept her poring over surgical video and scans until well after dinner, but eventually her need to be within the comforting company of wife and daughter won her over, especially after Arizona's <em>"Just text me so I know you're alive"<em> message arrived around eight o'clock. _"Alive and coming home,"_ she responded before packing up. Owen sent her an email saying he wanted to see her in the morning, and she really isn't looking forward to that.

She opens the door and hears Arizona's voice, her Sofia-voice, coming from the living room. Her girls sit on the couch with a bedtime bottle, Sofia relaxed completely in her Momma's arms, one hand extended for a firm grip on Arizona's long, long hair. Arizona just keeps on talking as she untangles Sofia's fingers.

"Karev is a little crazy, yes he is, and he's always making Momma worry, isn't he? Isn't he? And soon Mami will be home, and we'll tell her all about our very busy day, and how we are bringing over breakfast for Teddy tomorrow, because she already kicked us out of her apartment once today, and that wasn't very nice, was it? No, but I think we'll give her a free pass, because we all miss Henry. Even you, I think. He made you laugh. Poor Aunt Teddy, hmm?"

"Hey," Callie announces her presence, and Arizona turns around to give her a wide, adoring smile. Sofia stretches around sleepily, blinking at her Mami. She releases a heavy sigh. "Hello, beautiful girl."

"Well, hello to you, too, but I think Sofia would appreciate a greeting," Arizona teases back.

The stress of the multiple peds cases and Karev's car accident seems to have been lifted from Arizona's shoulders by a few hours with Sofia; when they'd run into each other at work for a grand total of thirty seconds (just enough time for a kiss and a "I got Sof"), Arizona was wound as tight as possible, but now she has that fantastic maternal glow she gets when she's in mom-mode.

"You're lucky you're cute," Callie manages with a chuckle.

Sofia grunts and protests her mother's, and hence her bottle's, distraction.

"I'd come and say hi, but someone is as demanding as her madre. Join us?"

Callie nods and drops her stuff onto the breakfast bar before collapsing onto the couch next to them. Sofia, now contentedly suckling on the bottle, gives a happy giggle as Callie runs one finger up her foot, scraping against the soft cotton of her footie sleeper. She tries to let the happiness of her girls rush over her, but when she closes her eyes, she just sees Laura in surgery and imagines her never getting a moment like this with Drew again. It didn't happen, but they were so close. She leans forward and kisses Arizona's cheek, leaning her forehead against hers, finally letting it all catch up with her. She barely registers the tears until Arizona speaks up, voice amazingly soft and sweet.

"Hey, what's this? Calliope," Arizona whispers gently. "Is this about your patient?"

Callie nods and feels Arizona desperately trying to finagle a free hand while still supporting Sofia and her bottle. Callie helps her out, taking the bottle from her and holding it up. It's an awkward angle, but Sofia, eyes sleepily half-shut, keeps on drinking, and Arizona's free hand comes up to cup Callie's cheek.

"Hey, shh. It's okay," Arizona soothes, fingers tracing tear tracks and lips coming forward to kiss them away.

"It's my fault. I was reading a magazine. I was excited because it was the first time I'd had an hour to breathe all week, so I was reading a _goddamn magazine._"

Arizona kisses her lips quickly, chastely.

"Let me put the baby down," she says. "Yeah? She's halfway there already. It'll just take a few minutes, and then I'm yours alone for the rest of the night."

"I can put her-"

"Shh, just give her lots of Mami kisses and I'll be right back."

Arizona shifts Sofia into Callie's arms. They know the infant's almost asleep when she doesn't protest Arizona stealing the nearly empty bottle to place in the sink. Callie buries her face in the crook of Sofia's neck, inhaling that sweet baby scent, with just the faintest trace of Momma from all the snuggles. It's perfection. She stays there, drinking in tranquility, until a soft hand on her shoulder causes her to look up until an equally soft smile.

"Let me put her in her crib. I think her Mami kisses did the trick. We missed you tonight."

"I missed you, too. I'll take her," Callie says with a shaky breath, standing and needing a few more moments with her angel.

"Okay. I'll be here."

* * *

><p>Callie emerges from Sofia's room, the soft hum of humidifier and twirling mobile behind her, and finds two glasses of wine on the coffee table waiting for her while her wife's beautifully sculpted ass is bent over the fireplace.<p>

"Leave it," Callie orders, extending one glass of wine to Arizona. "Take me to bed."

"That is something I will never say no to," Arizona grins, taking the wine and stepping in to steal a kiss. Her free hand threads with Callie's and she tugs her wife back towards their bedroom, sipping lightly on the glass she carries.

They settle onto the bed, wine on the nightstands, Callie's head on Arizona's shoulder, arm tucked around her waist as she holds her close. Arizona's arms form a warm, safe circle around her, soothing fingers everywhere.

"Start from the beginning. I only heard bits and pieces; my day was a little... crazy."

"I know, I'm sorry. You went through so much today, too. And poor Teddy..."

"Hey," Arizona interrupts as the tears start anew. "I'm okay, and Teddy... We'll deal with Teddy. Tonight, I'm all yours, okay? So tell me."

"I released a patient who had a surgical screw literally ripping her heart into shreds. If she hadn't been lucky enough to collapse _in_ the hospital, she would be dead right now. And the worst thing is? I didn't insert the screws; Avery did. While I... I don't know... read about celebrity gossip? He's the Gunther, right? I assumed he had it. But I was lazy, and didn't check, and this amazing mom almost died on Teddy's table."

"It was Teddy's patient?" Arizona asks, connecting the dots.

Callie nods, cheek nestled in at Arizona's breast.

"So she made it?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that I royally fucked up, or that Owen chewed me out multiple times, or that I had to look that husband in the eye and know he hated me. Of course he hates me. I'd hate me if it were you on the table."

Arizona drops a kiss onto Callie's curls.

"I mean, Owen just lost all respect for me, I think. He barely trusted me on any surgery we had together today."

"Deep down he knows you're amazing. We all make mistakes. We all get through them, and we fight on and save even more lives. Our successes outweigh our failures, and that's a great day."

"Of course you say that. You're a rock star."

"_No_, you're a rock star." Arizona bites her lip, thinking it over. "Okay, maybe we're both rock stars. But still, your surgical skills are not being called into question."

"Just my teaching ones," Callie says bitterly.

"You're still new to teaching, Calliope. You've only been at it a couple years. And just like when we started being surgeons, sometimes we make mistakes. It's so hard to supervise, so hard to check over work that your hands didn't just do. I've let stupid resident mistakes pass by me, too."

"Did the patient spend hours in the OR and almost die because of it?"

"No. He was three years old and bled out before we could get him back in the OR."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Callie winces and lifts her head to look into Arizona's sad eyes, wondering if she's brought on another round of tiny coffin dreams tonight and feeling a little dumb for wallowing in something that ultimately worked out.

"Sorry."

Arizona shakes that away, kissing Callie's tear streaked cheek again. "No, yours is awful, too. And Hunt was out of line."

"He's kinda had a shitty day too," Callie can admit.

"Haven't we all?" Arizona smiles, stroking Callie's hair. "Hey, you want me to kick Avery's ass? Because it _was _a stupid mistake and he is kinda an airhead."

"You might have to fight Mark, too; he'll step in to defend him."

Arizona laughs, and Callie delights in how she feels it rumbling through her, chasing away the demons for awhile.

"Calliope, I can so take Mark Sloan." She pauses, considering. "Just as long as Sofia's not in the room. I don't know that we have enough money to pay for that much therapy."

Callie chuckles a little, the rhythmic feeling of Arizona's fingers tracing from the ends of her hair as far down her spine as she could get lulling her into peace. She still feels terrible for her recklessness, but those troubles are fading into the distance, to be dealt with tomorrow, once Arizona has restored her strength.

"I will beat Avery up though," Arizona repeats.

"That's not very professional or teacher-ly."

"He upset my wife. That trumps everything."

"Thanks, but I'll manage. If you put him on some really terrible cases for the next couple times he's with you, though, I won't object."

"Consider it done."

"Thanks. And please confiscate every copy of _People_ and _In Touch_ that you can find."

Arizona laughs again. "Sure. I'll be your sponsor." She kisses Callie's ear. "Sometimes I make Karev narrate every part of a surgery when he's doing it. Not because it helps him, but because I have so much trust in him that I worry I'll zone out and something will go wrong. Or worse, that I'll fall asleep. Last month, when Sofia had that cold and was up every two hours? I might have actually slept through a whole bowel resection. Thank god Karev had a question about what kind of stitch to finish off with, or I might've never even seen the work he did."

"So you're saying even legendary teachers like Arizona Robbins can fall short in supervision?"

"Mhmm," Arizona answers, not bothering to refute the honor given to her. "And sometimes the residents screw up when you're watching like a hawk, too, and that's still on us. Stupid residents."

Callie laughs and lets her fingers begin tracing patterns against the skin she exposes at Arizona's hip by pushing up her shirt.

"Will you just hold me for a while?"

"I'll hold you forever."

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><p>el fin<p> 


End file.
